


To Keep From Harm

by Neyiea



Category: LazyTown, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-22 00:44:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9574370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neyiea/pseuds/Neyiea
Summary: During the winter months Sportacus is always careful about keeping a closer eye on the kids, not wanting any of the innate dangers of the season to come into play.But he's not the only one who looks out for the children of Lazy Town.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SocksandFluff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SocksandFluff/gifts).



> Dedicated to RottenSocksandFluff, who I have discovered also loves Rise of the Guardians and who encouraged me to finally write this idea that's been kicking around in my head for a while.

Sportacus loves winter; loves skating, skiing, snowball fights, tobogganing, essentially anything that can be done outside while surrounded by snow is something that brings him immeasurable joy, especially now that he’s settled in a town and has friends to play with.

There are a handful of things that he is always careful about during these colder months, though. Thin ice, hypothermia, and frostbite, to name a few. He is playmate and protector, surrogate sibling and slightly-above-average-hero, and if anything serious were to ever happen to the children while they were under his care he doesn’t think he would recover from the blow.

So he is always extra careful in the winter; he checks the weather forecast with his AI as soon as he wakes up, and the first thing he does when his feet touch solid ground is thoroughly check the ice to see whether it is strong enough to hold his own weight. He keeps a close eye on the kids during the day, noting red noses and complaints of cold fingers, and always makes sure they’re dressed properly for the outdoors.

Today is going to be cold, but also sunny with no wind-chill factor so he knows for certain that the kids will all be eager to play. The past few days have been a bit warmer, sometimes even going above freezing in the afternoons, so it’s likely that the ice won’t be up to standard and he’ll have to be sure to keep their play from drifting anywhere unsafe.

He checks the pond outside of town before he starts his morning calisthenics and sure enough the ice creaks and cracks under the single foot he presses onto the surface.

No ice-based activities today, but he’s sure he and the kids can find many other fun, safe ways to play. He grins to himself as he flips back into town, his usual movement keeping him warm as he keenly waits for the children to start waking up and coming outside.

Stephanie is the first one out, quickly followed by Trixie and Stingy. Stephanie follows along with his morning workout routine while Trixie and Stingy work together to make the base of a snowman that almost ends up being as tall as they are.

Ziggy rushes out not much later, bundled up as thoroughly as always, his eyes barely visible between the edge of his hat and scarf.

“What are we going to do today Sportacus? Huh, huh?” His voice is somewhat muffled by the knitted fabric over his mouth, but his excitement is both palpable and contagious. Sportacus grins down at him, hands settling on his hips.

“What would you guys like to do today?” He looks over the kids, eyebrows raising a little when he notes that Pixel is still absent. “Ah, but perhaps we should wait until everyone is here to make plans.”

“I’ll go get Pixel!” Stephanie volunteers, straightening out her mittens idly before skipping off in the direction of his house.

Somehow it only takes about one minute for Trixie to initiate a one-on-one snowball fight with Stingy, which Sportacus watches with fondness for several long moments. He intervenes before Trixie can pin Stingy to the ground and shove a snowball down the back of his coat. 

“It’s very cold out, Trixie,” he reminds her gently as he lays a hand upon her shoulder, “it’s not very nice to try and wrestle your friends into a snow bank.”

Trixie huffs. “Well, maybe I wouldn’t want to if he stopped saying that the snowman we’ve been working together on is going to be his.”

Stingy gasps dramatically, then crosses his arms and sticks his nose in the air.

Sportacus kneels down in front of them both. “Stingy, did you tell Trixie that the snowman was yours, even though you’ve been working with her to make it?”

“Maybe,” Stingy sniffs. “I don’t see what the big deal is. I mean, why shouldn’t it be mine?”

Trixie rolls her eyes and gives Sportacus a pointed look. Sportacus tries not to laugh.

Stephanie and Pixel appear on the scene before Sportacus can jump into an explanation about how teamwork means equal ownership, and that’s when Sportacus realizes that, once again, he appears to be down a child.

He doesn’t bother holding in his laugh this time as he leaps up onto one of the walls that surround the sports field to get a better vantage point to look for Ziggy, who often likes to go off by himself and find untouched sections of snow to lay back and make snow angels in. 

His heart just about stops beating when he notices that Ziggy’s been steadily making his way over to the pond. He’s not in danger yet, Sportacus’s crystal is still thankfully silent, but he’s close enough that Sportacus doesn’t bother with an explanation as to where he’s running off to before he all but flies across the snow.

He comes to an abrupt halt in front of Ziggy well before the young boy can step onto the thin ice, but it does little to quell his panic when Ziggy blinks up at him curiously, obviously not entirely sure why Sportacus has seen fit to stop in front of him.

“Is something the matter, Sportacus?”

“Ziggy, do you remember how the last few days were a lot warmer than today?”

“Hmm? Yeah.”

“Well the ice isn’t as strong as it was a week ago because it was able to thaw out a little, and it would make me feel a lot better if you and the other kids didn’t play around here unless I let you know for sure that it was safe.”

“But it looks safe!”

“It does, but that doesn’t always mean that it is safe.”

A cold breeze picks up suddenly, odd, since there isn’t supposed to be any wind today. Human forecasts may vary in their dependability at times, but his airship’s readings are rarely wrong.

His eyes drift out onto the ice, and he is startled to see sudden patterns of frost grazing artfully across the surface. White blossoms across the entirety of the pond like a field of abstract flowers. 

“But you know Sportacus, my cousin said that kids don’t ever fall through ice any more,” Ziggy protests excitedly. “My cousin says it’s because there’s someone watching over us!”

“Oh?” Sportacus continues staring out across the ice as the curling, fortifying patterns slowly come to a stop. “And who is it that’s watching over you?”

“Jack Frost! Can’t you see him? He’s out there right now!” Ziggy gestures at the ice excitedly. “He’s got the hoodie and the staff and everything, just like my cousin told me!”

“Jack Frost?” Sportacus takes a few steps forward and carefully places one foot on the edge of the ice. It’s solid beneath him. He steps out fully onto the pond, and the ice that he’d worried about buckling under a child’s weight earlier this morning easily keeps him aloft. “I’ve never heard of him.”

“That’s because Jack Frost is just a folk-tale,” Pixel’s voice pipes up, and Sportacus turns to see that all of the kids ended up following after him. “He doesn’t exist, it’s just something that parents tell their kids about. No scientific evidence can be found to prove the contrary.”

Ziggy makes a wounded noise low in his throat and suddenly the wind picks up, gusting across the ice and kicking up flurries. Sportacus squints his eyes against the sudden chill, and he swears that he can see a flicker of blue and brown race overhead, as if lifted up by the inexplicable current of air.

“He’s gone now,” Ziggy mumbles sadly. “That wasn’t very nice, Pixel.”

“Pixel gets too caught up in facts to see what’s in front of his face,” Trixie cuts in, ruffling the top of Ziggy’s hat in a fond, sibling-like manner before she turns to Sportacus, “is the ice safe to go out on?”

“It seems so,” Sportacus tells them slowly, mind processing what he’d seen.

It’s magic, there’s no doubt about it, and he’s never seen anything quite like it.

His gaze drifts down to the swirling designs of frost still visible on the top layer of ice, beautiful and strong.

“Jack Frost,” he says to himself, pensive even as the kids start stepping out onto the ice and make plans to play hockey.

Perhaps he ought to ask Ziggy a little more about this person. 

x-x-x

Nearly three weeks go by before Sportacus thinks that Jack Frost is in town again.

Speaking with Ziggy hadn’t been especially enlightening, he mostly just had facts about what Jack looked like and how he sometimes drew in the frost of Ziggy’s windows at night, but it had certainly solidified the fact that Ziggy believed that he was real. 

It was, at times, a little difficult to wrap his head around the idea that an invisible teenager held the sort of pure, elemental magic necessary for what Sportacus had seen at the pond, but if Ziggy believed in him so firmly then why shouldn’t Sportacus? 

It’s getting closer to springtime and Sportacus is ever-wary of the ice, especially since the kids built themselves a large snow fort near the edge of the pond as a place they could relax in after skating. Early this morning it had been precariously thin, but as the hours pass by the sky grows overcast, and cold winds rush in from the north, and when the children eventually drift closer to the pond during their play he tests it out again. Just like several weeks ago he finds that it’s once again much stronger than he assumes it would be, with fresh swirls of frost gleaming in the light of mid-morning.

Trixie and Stingy look like they’re about to devolve into an argument and Sportacus prepares himself for an intervention. Then Ziggy laughs abruptly and a snowball flies in from a spot where no child had been standing to hit Trixie in the back of the head.

Sportacus expects one of several things to happen, but Trixie laughing in obvious delight is not one of them.

Her sudden joy seems to spread quickly throughout the remaining children, and soon there is an all-out snowball fight going on between them with no teams or strategy, just happy shrieks and constant throwing at whoever happens to be closest.

Ziggy looks up at the top of a fence from time to time, and Sportacus finds himself looking as well, struggling to see what Ziggy is so obviously focused on.

The wind picks up, and just like before Sportacus sees a blur of blue as something lifts up off of the fence. 

He won’t let it—him?—get away this time, though.

Sportacus follows after the wind, springing above walls and cartwheeling past frozen park benches. He can swear that he hears laughter, bright and joyous, and it brings a smile onto his own face.

The sound cements the knowledge in his head. 

Jack Frost is real.

Finally as he nears town hall he leaps up between two buildings, arm and legs bracing against brick as he flings himself up to a roof, and— 

There he stands, his back to Sportacus, just as Ziggy had described him: a blue hoodie, worn brown pants, no shoes, and something like a shepherd’s staff in his grip. 

“Jack Frost,” he calls out, and the figure turns abruptly, blue eyes wide for several long moments before a smile tugs at his features.

“You can see me?”

Sportacus nods and Jack laughs, fearlessly leaping up onto the thin wall of brick that borders the roof.

“This is amazing! I don’t think I’ve ever been seen by a regular adult before. They never believe,” he says, inflecting a curious weight onto the last word. “You sure know how to keep up. I thought I’d lose you once I got onto a roof.” He leans against his staff, looking Sportacus up and down cheerfully. “You’re not a regular human adult, are you?”

“Not human at all, actually.” Sportacus lifts his hat just enough to show off a single pointed ear before putting it back in place.

Jack laughs again, and a burst of wind gusts and brings him to settle down directly in front of Sportacus.

“I’ve never seen an elf like you before. Where do you come from?”

“An island in the north.”

“Really?” Jack flits around him in obvious excitement. “I wonder why I’ve never seen one before. I travel a lot, gotta follow the season, you know, and I’ve been kicking around for three hundred years. You’d think that I’d have seen an elf like you long before I saw a yeti.”

Sportacus blinks curiously, the phrase ‘three hundred years’ echoing in his mind. 

“Elves can be very good at hiding in plain sight. Anyways, I just wanted to find you in order to thank you.”

“Thank me?” Jack rocks up on his toes, looking delighted. “What do you need to thank me for?”

“Keeping the ice thick, keeping the kids safe. I worry about them, especially in the winter when so many things can go wrong. It’s good to know that someone else is out there, looking out for them, making sure they’re alright.” Sportacus sticks out a hand and Jack, with a somewhat bemused smile, takes a hold of it.

His fingers are oddly cool to the touch.

Perhaps that’s normal for a winter spirit, or whatever Jack is. 

“Thank you, Jack Frost,” he says earnestly, and Jack’s smile widens.

“It’s no problem. There’s no point in getting kids to have fun if you can’t be sure they’re safe, right?”

Sportacus smiles back. “Exactly right.” He lets go of Jack’s hand and the sprite flips back onto the edge of the roof, cradled by an air current.

“It was nice to meet you, elf!”

“Sportacus,” he corrects lightly, and Jack’s grin becomes somewhat impish.

“Sportacus, then. Maybe I’ll see you around again sometime, before winter comes to an end.” He waves before looking up at the sky, his arms spread wide.

“Wind, take me home,” he calls, and Sportacus can hear the whistling of a powerful gust forming a few seconds before Jack is flung into the air, a laugh falling from his lips as he twirls higher and higher, until he’s out of sight. 

“Until next time, Jack Frost,” Sportacus says to himself with a grin before he excitedly leaps off of the building, landing gracefully in the knee-deep snow.

Time to see if any of the kids needed some reinforcement for their snowball fight.


End file.
